| Match Pictures | Matches: 1997 – 1998 | 1997-1998 Pictures |
Trivia
- Lou Macari announced that he planned to appeal the result of his case for unfair dismissal, which had exonerated Celtic and thrown out his claim for over £400,000 compensation.
- The season ticket prices for the next season were frozen. These were adult prices between £229 to £369; parent and child at £349; and OAP/child between £145 to £225. There was a waiting list of 10,000 for season tickets.
- Dominic Keane and Willie Haughey, ex-Celtic Directors, took over control of Livingston from Bill Hunter for £1 and announced a 5 year plan to get the club into the new Premier League with Jim Leishman, the current manager there.
- Malky MacKay had been due to go on loan to Huddersfield, but this move was vetoed by Jansen in case of injuries to other defenders.
- Morten Wieghorst was still in re-contract negotiations with the club (he was out of contract at the end of the season) but was prepared to leave it until the end of the season.
- Darren Jackson came back into the squad having recovered from his hamstring injury; McNamara was given time to recover from the ankle injury which had been troubling him; David Hannah again dropped out.
Review
A game which should have been won and definetly 2 points dropped. Poor finishing and bad luck gave just the one goal and an edginess in the second half allowed the Arabs to pull back an equaliser. The result left the team still top 2 points ahead of Hearts and 4 ahead of Rangers, but was a chance missed to put some distance between us and the chasing pack.
Teams
Celtic:
Gould , Boyd , Mahe, Donnelly, Rieper , Stubbs (Annoni ,81 ), Larsson , Burley , Brattbakk (Jackson ,75 ), Lambert, Wieghorst (O'Donnell ,84)
Scorer: Donnelly (27)
Dundee Utd:
Dykstra, Bowman, Malpas, Skoldmark, Perry, Pedersen, Olofsson, Zetterlund (McLaren ,46 ), Winters, Dolan, Easton
Subs not used: Crawford, Duffy
Scorer: Olofsson (75)
Bookings: Mahe (Celtic) Bowman ,Pedersen ,Skoldmark (Dundee Utd)
Referee: M McCurry ( )
Attendance: 48,656
Articles
- Match Report (see below)
Pictures
Stats
| Celtic | Dundee Utd | |
| Bookings | 1 | 3 |
| Fouls | 4 | 8 |
| Shots on Target | 5 | 2 |
| Corners | 4 | 2 |
| Offside | 0 | 2 |
Kjell's bells, Celtic pay for all those missed chances.
Three-way race is still wide open as Parkhead men join the championship lemmings
The Herald 16/03/1998
Celtic ………………… 1 Dundee United ………… 1
IT didn't look like it for a while, but eventually Celtic joined in the queue of championship lemmings which formed over the weekend and did their bit to leave the great title race still wide open.
Celtic did gain a point, but their fans, like the players, will consider it very much a case of losing two,especially after the way they outplayed United in the first half.
They had only a single Simon Donnelly goal to show for all their superiority – although TV evidence showed they were due a penalty when Donnelly was downed later in the half – and as time wore on and the second goal didn't come, the Parkhead players began to get edgy, along with the great majority of the 48,656 fans.
When doubts set in, goals are invariably lost and, sure enough, along came the man who has made a habit of scoring against Celtic, Kjell Olofsson, to knock in a fine equaliser 16 minutes from the end.
By then, United had left well behind them the poor form of the first half and were much more like the team they can be.
Even so, a share of the points had seemed a remote possibility during the opening spell when the Parkhead men were playing with verve, skill and imagination against a team that, mentally at least, appeared to accept their minor role.
However, they had a series of missed chances which gave United hope and, no doubt after they were reminded of their responsibilities by their manager, gave a far more positive showing in the second period.
When Olofsson scored United were going through their best period in the game.
It was a comeback that delighted the watching Hearts manager Jim Jefferies, but he also has to tackle McLean's team next week, and at Tannadice.
Henrik Larsson has not missed very much in his short time at Parkhead, but he will concede that the chance he squandered early on was a bit special.
Wieghorst had chipped the ball to the far post where Alan Stubbs headed it firmly across goal. The Swedish striker jumped up, measured his header from about eight yards and directed it past the post.
That was one of many raids set up by Celtic as United were too busy defending to cause much bother at the other end.
Magnus Skoldmark was a little too zealous in his attempts to curb the Parkhead enthusiasm and eventually he was booked for a series of fouls.
Brattbakk had already had one good effort from close range blocked by Sieb Dykstra, but the keeper did himself no favours by pushing Donnelly angrily after the Celtic man had gone down when challenged by the Dutchman chasing a ball into the penalty area.
Referee Mike McCurry had made it clear he saw no offence, but the TV replays indicated Celtic had a case.
Brattbakk lifted the crowd again with a superb volley from 22 yards that went only over the bar, but in 27 minutes, that noise was out-decibelled by the cheers that accompanied Celtic's goal.
It deserved all the adulation, too. Wieghorst sent over a chip from the left, Brattbakk flicked it on with his head and Donnelly met it on the drop with his right foot to direct it into the net just inside the far post.
The keeper and his team-mate, the ever-excellent Maurice Malpas, could not believe their luck, however, a few minutes before the break.
Another classy move from Larsson and Donnelly left Brattbakk flicking the ball nonchalantly for goal a few yards out, only to see it deflect off the two United men and bounce for a corner.
United adopted a more positive approach which coincided with the arrival of McLaren in place of Zetterland, but it was Brattbakk who had the first chance. However, he ****** his shot and Dykstra collected comfortably.
United were having more success with their own forward attempts and, after a few forays into the Parkhead penalty area they hit an equaliser that stunned and silenced the huge crowd – apart from the wee group of Tayside fans gathered in their corner behind the goal.
Inevitably, it was Olofsson who did the damage, taking a pass from Easton on the left and running on determinedly before shooting the ball confidently past Jonathon Gould.
- Manager Interview
Wim Jansen post match:
"The result was very disappointing, especially if you look at the way we played in the first half. We could not get a second goal and we missed many chances.
"When you do that, the other team will always get one or two breaks and they scored with the one they got. We gave away too much space to them and maybe we tried too hard to score in the second half. You can see from the results of this weekend that you have to do it yourself and not rely on others.
"We have a hard game next Saturday but Rangers and Hearts have the same problem.
"I don't think our disappointing second half was anything to do with tension. If we had scored two or three goals in the first half, the game would have been over. Our style is to attack but we try to keep things compact. Sometimes these things happen."